Turkey reports 1,391 new coronavirus cases

Turkey reported 1,391 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 1,245 recoveries over the past 24 hours, the country's Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

The country's overall case count now stands at 318,663, with recoveries totaling 279,749, according to Health Ministry data.

Nearly 112,098 more coronavirus tests were conducted over the past 24 hours, bringing the overall tally to over 10.38 million.

The death toll from the virus reached 8,195, with 65 more fatalities.

During a press conference, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca noted that the number of patients in the capital Ankara dropped by half in two weeks.

"By the measures we have taken, the number of patients daily has decreased by around 60% in the last 10 days," he said.

Touching upon the vaccine studies, he said: "I believe that we will start producing the vaccine soon."

Turkey will increase the number of tests daily to around 200,000, he added.

The figures also showed that the number of patients in critical condition now stands at 1,516, while 6.4% suffer from pneumonia.

Across the world, COVID-19 has claimed more than a million lives in 188 countries and regions since last December.

The US, India, and Brazil are currently the worst-hit countries.

Over 33.74 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries surpassing 23.4 million, according to figures compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.